Fanfare: Countdown down to Robbie's landing date

Stand by for yet more Robbiemania. The date for a New Zealand show for Robbie Williams - earlier mooted during his infamous promotional visit last year - is being announced via the internet next weekend.

The site www.liveinconcert.co.nz is already dropping heavy hints - "The ego is landing and there's very little more we can tell you at this point in time," it says - about Williams' first proper tour Down Under and asking fans to register for preferential bookings.

TimeOut understands the show will be in November at Mt Smart Stadium with the date and venue to be confirmed on the site at midnight next Saturday. Williams' local promoters and record company are planning a satellite press conference on Monday, April 23, to help to get those early sales rolling.

* While next month is looking like "nu-Metal May" on the international concert front, there's some cool guitar pop a-coming in the form of the Dandy Warhols who are confirmed to play the St James, Auckland on Tuesday, May 15. The quartet out of Portland, Oregon, head here on the backs of their very fine 2000 album Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia, described in these pages thus: "Just when we were ready to dismiss them as one-or-two alterna-hit wonders they've pulled out an album that places them somewhere near the new American psychedelia of Mercury Rev and the like - and pop-smarts that suggest they could be the stateside Blur." Tickets go on sale on Tuesday.

* That expatriate gentleman of saxophone-powered jazz groove, Nathan Haines, is heading back home for a three-date New Zealand tour starting at the St James on Saturday, April 28.

The jaunt home follows the recent release of Haines' third album Sound Travels and he leads an eight-piece band which features among its line-up his guitarist brother Joel and bassist father Kevin. Tickets ($35 to $40) are on sale now. Haines and band also play Wellington's Studio Nine on Friday, May 4 and Dunedin's Odeon Theatre on Saturday, May 5.

* Among some late changes to the Easter weekend and future gig calendar ... Swedish rockers the Hellacopters (see story this page) and Finland rave-stylers the Bomfunk MCs have both switched venues for their shows tomorrow night. Originally playing at the Powerstation, the Hellacopters are now at the Kings Arms, while the Bomfunk MCs, who were to play the St James, are now at the Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber. Tickets already purchased remain valid.

Meanwhile, reggae legends The Gladiators have indefinitely postponed their South Pacific tour which was to have included an Auckland show next month; and a previously confirmed show here next month by new American metallers Amen hasn't got a prayer apparently, though the gigs by Pantera and Linkin Park, which were advertised at the same time, are still all go.

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